The Heart Will Lead You To Your Home
by MyHeartWontGoOn
Summary: PPF AU. They say that home is where the heart is. For Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David, two lost souls who found love in the most unlikely of ways, and two of the most oblivious people, this is the truth. Home is each other. Can they really live without one another? Tony had to do so before. He failed. So would that ever had worked, nearly four years later?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Don't own NCIS or it's characters, just playing in this universe to rectify certain events. I also do not own any characters from any other fandom that may make cameos occasionally. **

**A/N: Any of you familiar with the last episode of friends will probably shake your head a little at this, and I'm sorry, but I couldn't just leave that episode the way it was. Too much heartbreak. So I'm fixing it. My way. And if you could tell me what you think I'd be immensely grateful as I personally don't think I am the best writer, so feedback and constructive criticism would be the greatest thing for me. Enjoy!**

**It also disregards anything that happened after PPF, so the BP stuff is no, and well as EB. **

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Tony sat in his seat on the plane, sighing heavily. He didn't want to leave. He didn't want to be without her. He'd done that before, and it had nearly killed him. He'd gone on a suicide mission and came out alive, with Ziva. It had been a shock to see her when he did, but what he said to her was true. "Couldn't live without you, I guess." And that's the thought that changes his life.

Tony picked up his duffel bag – he hated travelling with suitcases if it wasn't necessary, and this time it hadn't been. He stood up, careful not to knock his head, suddenly thankful that the stairs were still there, and the door had not been shut. It was probably one of the most drastic, impulse decisions he had made – and he knew there was many impulse decisions he made. He stood in the doorway of the plane, hesitating for a moment, not sure that Ziva would still be out there. He knew that she wouldn't approve of him getting off the plane, but there are some things that you do for love, and getting off your flight away from the one you love, is something you do. He stepped out of the plane, and looked over to where she had last been. She wasn't there, but there was a body walking away from the space she had been.

Quickly shoving his bag onto his shoulder, coat over the same one, he nearly ran down the steps, nearly falling over at the last one. He jogged towards the person that was leaving, and as he got closer, he could see the familiar shape of her, and the unmistakeable waves of her unruly hair.

"Ziva!" Tony called to her, praying that she'd turn around and look at him. He himself stopped, not wanting to be too close to her just in case she reacted badly – something she know she could, and possibly would, however unlikely, do. He saw her stop, and stand up straighter – she'd been slightly hunched earlier on. Ziva did the one thing he hoped she'd do. Ziva turned, albeit slowly, almost as if she didn't want to believe that Tony had gotten off the plane for her – not anyone else. There was no one else for him to get off for.

As she turned, he immediately noticed the wet sheen to her cheeks - she'd been crying, quite a lot, it seemed, and still was, and Tony's heart sank and lifted at the same time. Lifting because she'd turned, she cared so much, and sinking because she'd been crying so much, and because of him, because sometimes, some people shouldn't be separated.

"Tony," Ziva breathed out, her voice barely audible over the sound of the plane not far behind. "Why are you not on the plane?" It was almost a repeat of a long ago conversation between the two of them, something they're both fully aware of, and they both know what's going to come next, something that brings tears to Tony's eyes, and brings more to Ziva's already puffy and red eyes.

He takes a breath to calm himself, to try and stop his voice from shaking, but knows ultimately it'll fail, that he'll cry, that she'll cry too. "Can't live without you, I guess." He smiles, but it's watery and bittersweet, and a tear escapes him, something he can't help and immediately wipes away. "Tried that before, failed. I don't want to do it again. Not anymore."

It's Ziva that moves forward, towards Tony, and soon enough she's less than a foot away, a small, happy smile on her face, something that shines through her tears. She reaches up to cup Tony's face, just as Tony drops his bag and coat onto the floor. He repeats the action on her face, though with both hands, wiping the tears away gently with his thumbs.

"Do you not have to get back to D.C? To home?" Ziva says in a hushed tone, after all there's no point in being loud.

Tony isn't one for clichés usually but sometimes they work just right. "Home is where the heart is, Ziva." He removes a hand from her face, and Ziva can feel the chill of the wind on the still wet patches of her face, and she almost shivers. He lifts up her hand and points with his index finger, into it. "And my heart is in here."

Ziva removes her hand from his face, and the one from his hand, wraps her hands around his middle, leaning her face into his shoulder. As she moves in for the hug he removes his other hand and does the same, putting his arms around her too.

They stay that way for a while, so long that the plane takes off, and that solidifies it for them both. Tony now cannot get home, at least for a while, and that means he's staying. They separate a few minutes after the plane takes off, both now tearless, but highly emotional, something that could backfire easily. Tony kisses her forhead and collects his stuff off the floor.

"C'mon, let's go home now, Ziva." He says, and puts his arm around her waist, and is thankful that she allows that. Hes even happier, however, when she does the same back.


	2. Chapter 2

** A/N: This one's a lot longer :) I may have missed a few spellings - please tell me if so. **

**Disclaimer: Not mine - if it was they would have stayed together.**

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The drive back to the small house was just over an hour long. In the early hours of the morning, it was a quiet, peaceful journey. During the short journey, the pairs hands were interlocking. It was reminiscent of just after they got back from Berlin.

Ziva was driving at a sedate pace - for her, anyway -and not too erratic, either. There were a few groans on the sharper corners, but that was a given when Ziva was driving. Maybe having her drive wasn't the wisest of plans, but it was better than him driving. He hadn't slept well in months and he hadn't driven much in Isreal. It wasn't worth the pain it could cause.

Ziva pulled the car up just outside the house just as the first rays of a warm yellow sunrise was dawning. The pair got out of the car, Tony grabbing his jacket and bag, and then looked at dawn break and smiled, and then at each other. They broke it off at the same time, their attention going back to the beautiful sunrise. It wasn't that either lacked beautiful sunrises. Tony had seen several in his search for Ziva, and Ziva had grown up there and, but neither were going to waste a beautiful sunrise. It was something you did when you had the chance.

After a few minutes, they both turned and headed towards the house, Ziva locking the car just beforehand.

Ziva unlocked the door to the house, checking the house for any discrepancies as she looked around her childhood home. If anyone was there, she knew it would ruin her memories of the place, no matter how hard she tried. She saw nothing, and breathed a sigh of relief, but wouldn't feel 100% safe until she had checked all the rooms by herself.

They went round the house checking each room, Tony placing his bag and jacket away as they worked round. As Ziva left him alone to sort his stuff, a sense of uneasy came upon him, though not one of impending danger, just anxiousness.

It was a while before they ended back up on the sofa like they had many times, Ziva on the left, Tony on the right. They'd had many important conversations this way round.

"They think I'm on that plane. That I'm going back." He knew he needed to tell, because there'd be a rather pissed off marine there otherwise. "I need to call them." McGee, Abby, Gibbs, Ducky, even the Director.

"I know." The fact that Tony had decided to stay in Israel with her made her think. He couldn't go back to NCIS, but she also knew he'd hate nit being a part of that. She paused to bite the insides of her lip. "Call them."

He texted Gibbs to tell him he wasn't getting on the plane, but didn't explain why. He knew the man wouldn't be happy, but it was better than leaving him at the airport in the early hours waiting for him.

After working the time differences, they both realised calling them all in at midnight might not be the wisest of plans they had. They decided to wait about 8 hours till the other part of the team would be in work

It was heading into early afternoon by the time they thought it was an acceptable time to call. Tony called McGee to get everyone to MTAC when it was possible, and then to call him.

It wasn't long before McGee called him back from MTAC. The Director seemed to have decided this was important enough to merit a early morning call, Early morning calls were usually for SitReps on foreign ops.

As he accepted the call, he saw the familiar room light up once again. It was a sight he had missed quite a bit, but he also knew he wouldn't see it for quite a while, in the flesh. He could only see McGee and Gibbs – presumably they'd let Abby and Ducky in when he had talked to the other two team members.

"Hey, Tony." It was McGee who spoke. Tony had missed his voice, as well as the others more than he'd care to admit. Tony didn't get a chance to reply to his friends statement, as he got interrupted Gibbs.

"Going to explain why you didn't get on that plane, DiNozzo?" Gibbs wasn't happy, but he knew that Tony wouldn't have done that without good reason, and so let him explain to him what was going on.

"About that, Boss." Tony looked just over the screen, and nodded at someone. Both the men in MTAC figured it out. It was Ziva.

Ziva moved round to sit next to Tony, who moved along the seat a bit to give her space. "Gibbs. Tim." She nodded at both of them, with a small smile.

"It's good to see you, Ziver." Gibbs had a moment of realisation why Tony didn't get on the plane home. "You're not coming back, are you, Tony?" The question shocked McGee – he couldn't fathom Tony not coming back to them. And Ziva too.

Tony paused for a moment, not expecting Gibbs to have figured him out that quick. "No, I'm not." He took a deep, if shaky breath. "I can't." He was half tempted to apologise, but he didn't think Gibbs would be particularly happy with him.

It hadn't occurred to McGee quite yet why Tony hadn't come back yet. "Why can't you come back?"

Gibbs rolled his eyes, but smirked all the same. "He's in love, McGee." The expression on McGee's face was one of realisation and resignation.

"Gibbs, I have an idea for Tony. For work." Gibbs cocked his head, letting her explain without interruption. "NCIS liaison with Mossad. When I left Mossad, they no longer had one. My.. father, he never filled in the position."

The two men in MTAC looked at each other. It didn't seem like a bad idea, and Tony would still be working for NCIS, even if he wasn't part of the team anymore.

"Talk to the directors about it." Gibbs said, as the door in the back of the room opened.

"Talk to the Directors about what, Gibbs?" It was Vance. They could do the American end now, if they wanted to. "Agent DiNozzo. David."

"Director." The two said simultaneously with a nod, despite Ziva having left the agency.

"DiNozzo, you coming back?" The Director asked, but had a feeling that it'd be a no. Vance did like DiNozzo now, he hadn't at first, but he'd watched the man when he worked. He wasn't the playboy, childish person he tried to make everyone believe he was. He often worked longer hours than most of the team, coming in again in the early hours of the morning when everyone had gone home.

"I'm not. Sir." The 'sir' was almost an afterthought- he'd had several months of not having to do it, and out of practice. "I can't come back, not at the moment."

"What exactly do you plan to do, then. If you're not coming back."

Ziva explained her idea again, Vance nodding along.

"You're an asset to this agency, DiNozzo. I'll speak to Orli. I don't want to lose you completely." The praise was a small shock to Tony. He didn't think that Vance liked him, still. But he wasn't one to turn it down.

"Thank you, Director."

Within the next twenty minutes, he caught up with the team properly, before going, after all – they did have jobs and could talk all day to the pair, despite how much they wanted to.


	3. Chapter 3

It was three years after Tony had left the USA that Gibbs had finally left the team at NCIS. Not of his own free will, mind you. The entire building knew that the man would have worked into his 90s if he had the opportunity. He was caught in an explosion, and had broken both of his arms and wrists, and one of his legs, injuring his knee severely. He could no longer walk the same, or no longer hold a gun steady anymore. Gibbs had taken the opportunity to retire, but this time did not leave to Mexico.

After Tony and Ziva had left, there had been two gaps on the team. Tim took up the role of Senior Field Agent, and Tony had never been quite so proud of him. There were still two places though. One was taken by Ned Dornegat, who very quickly became a more confident and competent man. He was a truly shining character. The other place was taken by a recently divorced NSA agent named Ellie Bishop. She liked to do a lot of her work by the rules, but she soon learnt how to bend them a little bit.

Tony and Ziva had bit by bit got to know Ellie Bishop and decided that she was a good addition to the team, and they came to the conclusion that the new team would be just as good as they were, once they grew into themselves and how they worked.

After Gibbs left, Tim became Team Lead, but not without a little reluctance but he soon grew into an exceptional leader, following in both the footsteps of Gibbs, but Tony too. He had a lot to live up to but he did it well, and never let his team down. There was again another space on the team, and Vance had filled the spot with a woman named, Natasha Livingstone. Tony and Ziva had come to like her too.

It also wasn't long after Gibbs left that Ducky left, leaving Autopsy in the hands of Jimmy Palmer, who had become a great father, and an even greater man, and had finally sorted out his sense of humour, and very rarely made an inappropriate joke – at least no one usually heard them. There was also a part time ME who was hired, named Charlotte Rogers, who was there to assist Jimmy when he needed it and there when he couldn't be.

Over those three years, Tony had become fluent in Hebrew, after all he was in a Hebrew speaking county – he couldn't expect everyone to know English – it was common decency. He also was taught French and Russian, and he while he wasn't quite fluent in them, he was pretty good, and had very little of an American accent when speaking in those languages. Tony had already known English, Spanish and Italian when he went over there, and he now knew six languages. He finally understood why Ziva had found it so difficult when she had arrived in America. English was a horrible language to learn – it had been the other language he'd been brought up speaking, the other being Italian. He'd taken Spanish in school, and he'd picked it up quite quickly, some things being close to Italian, others to English. Tony had been known if he was especially angry or passionate about something to fluctuate between English and Italian without really noticing.

Ziva had spent the first two of those three years travelling in and out of the country, sorting out other things in her past, but after that had settled in Israel with Tony. Ziva got herself a job as a translator for the foreign embassies in Israel, and sometimes the police force.

Five years after Tony leaving, he proposed to Ziva. It was in a small, quiet candlelit cafe in Tel Aviv, and it had been a short but incredibly meaningful speech, and a gorgeous yet not ostentatious ring. The pair had decided to keep the engagement a secret – they knew Abby especially would want to help plan the event, but they wanted it to be their own, without interference from others – and send the wedding invitations out well in advance – after all they'd have to be sent around the world, and plane tickets were also not always the cheapest, but the guests wouldn't have to pay for a hotel stay, just food, drinks and gifts for a few days if they wished. After the engagement, whenever they had spoken to the team about anything over webcam, Ziva had been very aware of keeping her left hand out of shot, and as long as she sat on the left of Tony, it wasn't a problem.

It was almost a week after they had sent the wedding invites that they got a sudden influx of emails and calls and messages from everyone, and they both knew that people had gotten their invites, and then they knew that hell was going down. Everyone was genuinely happy for them, but that didn't stop them being a bit annoyed that they hadn't told them and then invited them to a wedding happening in under a year in another country.

The wedding was a small affair, attended by well under a hundred, but it was full of family and friends – the way they wanted it. It was not a religious ceremony, neither of them fully believing in either of their religions anymore. Ziva's dress had been a champagne gold with a small train, and she had been positively stunning in it. They had invited Director Vance, but due to the amount of people who had left for the wedding, it simply wasn't safe for him to be there as well, but he did watch the ceremony and all the speeches at the reception via MTAC, and he'd had to relegate them to the side a few times for other calls, from politicians and operations in other countries, but he didn't miss a lot.

The reception had been generally cheerful, busy and speech filled event. Even Vance had given a small speech at the reception, even if not everyone heard or understood it. They had also asked everyone who was going to be speaking at the wedding to give a written version of the speech to them to put into a booklet, so the people who weren't fluent in the language of who was speaking could have a translation, and also as a memento of the day for everyone. The music of that night was a mix of popular American and Israeli songs, as well as some classics from both countries.

It was that night that Tony, Ziva, Abby, Tim, Gibbs, Ducky, Palmer, Ned and Fornell had spoken to each other face to face in six years. It was slightly tearful, and lots of hugs were involved.

It was Gibbs asked the question first. "Where are you going on your honeymoon, then?" There were mumbles of agreement and a slight squeal from Abby.

The two looked at each other and smirked, but Ziva spoke. "We will tell you when we get back home, yes?" Ziva had got back into the habit of not contracting her words, and Tony had started to do that too.

Everyone who wasn't Tony or Ziva, had the thought that it would be when they got back to their place in Israel, but that wasn't it. They meant DC. While Israel had been their home for the last few years, they were going back to their other home, but they weren't going to tell them that. They had of course, told NCIS and Mossad, but they'd been told to keep it a secret, and they held that up. They had had Tony's leaving evening just over a week beforehand as Tony thought it may be a good idea to have a week or two before the wedding so they could pack everything they would need. They had already sorted out all the furnishings for the apartment, it was just clothes and personal items they were taking.

They'd decided on it when they were discussing the first wedding plans, and had been sorting out an apartment or a small house. They had decided on a two bedroom apartment near where Tony had used to live – it was a good neighbourhood, just over a thirty minute drive from the Navy Yard on a good day.

Tony and Ziva were leaving that night, with all their suitcases. They both knew that it would be cold when they got back to DC, after all it was the end of November, and had the foresight to buy a few coats online before they left.

As it got to the early hours of the morning, it was time for Tony and Ziva to leave, and they knew it would cause tears.

The first people they said goodbye to, were Tony's friends from Mossad. Tony made sure to keep the conversation in Hebrew as to not let on to the others what was happening.

"_It is sad to see you go. You will be missed greatly over here. Please do keep in contact with us, Tony._" It was Rafael, one of the men he had worked with over the last six years, he seemed to be speaking for all.

"_I will miss you all greatly, do not worry about that. I will keep in contact, I promise." _ Tony paused visibly for a moment, before going in for a hug. Rafael returned the hug, and then released Tony, with a smile.

"_Do not cause too much trouble over there, okay?" _ Rafael looked at him sternly, but with a fondness in his eyes. Tony just laughed.

"_Now why would you think I would do that?" _

"_Many things, Tony. Many things."_ No harm was meant and everyone knew that. He followed on and gave a hug to the nine remaining men who had turned up from Mossad, and said goodbye to them individually.

It was a very true point however, that it was one very well armed wedding party – there was no doubt most of the NCIS group had a knife on them, and the Mossad group all had a least a knife and a gun stashed somewhere. It paid to be protected.

Tony gave one last grin to them, and made sure to show them that he wasn't slightly upset at leaving, despite the fact that he was.

They followed on after that by saying goodbye to the few people from Tony's family who turned up, and Ziva's Aunt Nettie. Tony's father hadn't arrived, but he'd had a heart attack a few months earlier and hadn't recovered very well, so Tony bore no hard feelings, after all he could go and see him when he got back to DC, not that his father knew otherwise.

They got to the NCIS group and took a deep breath together. Before Ziva or Tony could speak, Abby ran up and hugged them both as tight as she could, and they could feel her shaking a little, and knew she was crying. Tony took the arm from Ziva and gently removed her from himself, but held onto her arms.

"Abs, it'll be okay. I promise we will come visit DC sometime soon, okay?" Ziva moved closer to him and gave him a small jab in the ribs, but not noticeable for Abby.

Abby took a few deep breaths and smiled. "You'll come visit soon?"

"Yes, Abby, we will."

"Abigial, dear, we ought to let the newlyweds get onto their honeymoon. I'm sure they're dying to leave." It was Ducky.

The remaining conversations were along the same vein – they said they'd come visit soon – and then they hugged and said their goodbyes and tears were shed, and frankly just an emotional experience for everyone.

With a wave from the hotel door and a car to drive away in, Tony and Ziva left the hotel, and headed for home, where their suitcases lay in wait, and the keys were ready to be left inside for the owner to come and collect them, and then to change the locks.

Israel had been where they had got together and got married, but DC would be where they met for the first time, and where they'd spend the rest of their lives.


End file.
